A spectator was blinded in one eye after being injured while watching rally cross at Mallory Park race circuit.

Leicester Magistrates’ Court heard the man was hit in the eye by a stone thrown up by a passing motorcross bike.

The vehicle was travelling over a loose section of track created outside the race circuit and close to the stands for the event in August 2010.

The injury left the spectator with no useful sight in one eye despite numerous operations over the past three years.

Mallory Park (Motorsport) Ltd pleaded guilty to failing to conduct its undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, that spectators were not exposed to a risk to their safety arising from the event, in contravention of Section 3 of the Health and Safety At Work Act 1974.

Sentence on the company, which has been in administration since October 2013, was adjourned until further court hearings relating to the incident are concluded.

Other charges have been brought against the race organisers and promoters - Lydden Hill Race Circuit Ltd, Lydden Hill Motor Sport Club and Amy Doran, managing director of Lydden Hill Race Circuits Ltd – who have all pleaded not guilty.

The prosecution, heard on Friday January 3, was brought by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council.

The court was told the authority’s Environmental Health Service investigated the incident and found the loose track had been constructed significantly closer to spectators than the normal racing circuit.

No account had been taken by the company of likely debris being thrown up by passing vehicles or the separation distance between racing vehicles and spectators had been significantly reduced.